1. Field of the Invention
The present invention, disclosed hereinafter, concerns generally a computer-related apparatus and method for quantitatively mapping and displaying, according to certain criteria, sets of categories (i.e. attributes) associated with various, often diverse, criteria-related factors into a visual depiction involving complex topographical scenarios. That is, the present invention is concerned with the detailed mapping and displaying, with the aid of a digital computer, of the features of a uniquely-referenced, relatively small area, district, or locality (i.e. cell), such mapping and displaying of a set of such cells defining a plane surface or surface of a solid, accompanying, existing, or occurring with an imagined or projected sequence of events, especially any of several detailed plans or possibilities. In particular, the present invention provides a method and apparatus for quantitatively and collectively depicting concomitant scenario topography involving various environmental, political, economic, and technical criteria, factors, and categories concurrent with various sites on the abyssal sea floor which subsequently could be considered and evaluated as suitable candidate sites for large-scale national waste disposal.
2. Description of the Related Art
During the latter half of the 20.sup.th century, disposal of waste materials has rapidly become a complex, exigent problem confronting both the United States and the world. The geometric rate of growth in the world's population and the attendant increase in resource utilization, in conjunction with the rapid industrialization of virtually every modem nation, has generated a waste stream of immense proportions and troublesome content. Current waste management practices are insufficient to resolve the present predicament and a mere continuation of present policy portends, on a global scale, a horrendous future.
An attractive remedy to the waste disposal issue is dumping at sea. The main concern with waste disposal at sea arises from possible deleterious effects on living resources. Such inimical effects on human uses are primarily associated with the accumulation of substances by marine organisms, tainting of sea food, interference with fishing, interference with submarine cable laying and maintenance, and reduction of amenities by discoloration, turbidity and floating materials. The wastes of greatest concern are those which are toxic (particularly at low concentrations), accumulate in organisms, reach the sea in large amounts, and persist there for long periods. The waste disposal at sea issue was extensively explored and debated by the Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Pollution in 1982 at a meeting in London, England and reported in Report and Studies No. 16. This document, "Scientific Criteria for the Selection of Waste Disposal Sites At Sea", Report and Studies No. 16, IMCO/FAO/UNESCO/WMO/WHO/IAEA/UN/UNEP Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Pollution (GESAMP), IMCO, 1982, is incorporated by reference herein for purposes of demonstrating both the infancy of the art and the expressed recognition of a problem of significance and the concomitant need for a remedy or mitigation.
When does dumping at sea become pollution? Marine pollution is an increasingly threatening, global problem; as defined by GESAMP, "Pollution means the introduction by man, directly or indirectly, of substances or energy into the marine environment (including estuaries) resulting in such deleterious effects as harm to living resources, hazards to human health, hindrance to marine activities including fishing, impairment of quality for use of sea water and reduction of amenities."
In 1982, Report and Studies No. 16 did not prescribe any particular methodology for effective site selection, stating merely that the selection of dumping sites should be made in such a way as to minimize interference with present and potential uses of the sea. Factors to be considered, include (1) physical considerations, such as surface waves, wind-driven surface currents, interior oceanic circulation, turbulent diffusion, shear induced diffusion, vertical mixing, and modeling of transport and mixing in the ocean, (2) sedimentology, and (3) biological considerations, such as fishing grounds and aquaculture sites, breeding and nursery grounds, migration routes, and areas of high productivity or other special interest.
Because a growing majority of people live within 50 miles of the coastline of the United States, there are numerous proscriptions against dumping at sea. Disposal of trash in the ocean was outlawed by the United States Supreme Court in 1931; ocean dumping of industrial waste was prohibited by United States law in 1988; and the Ocean Dumping Ban Act of 1988 mandated the cessation of all sewage sludge dumping at sea by 1992. As a consequence of these and other legislative acts, land fills are rapidly filling up and are being closed by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Previous waste dumping at sea occurred within the Continental Shelf, generally in water depths less than 300 meters. Reconsideration and possible changes of current laws affecting dumping at sea may be warranted if utilization of the abyssal depths of the world's oceans can be demonstrated to be a feasible alternative option to the waste disposal at sea issue. This concept was examined at a Woods Hole Institute workshop, approximately a decade following the IMCO report. The document containing that workshop's conclusions and recommendations, "An Abyssal Ocean Option for Waste Management", Report of a Workshop held at The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 7-10 Jan. 1991, is incorporated by reference herein for purposes of demonstrating the continuing and unmet need for tractable, viable approaches to the waste disposal problem.
Although comprising a very large area, there is, unfortunately, a paucity of knowledge concerning these abyssal sea floor regions, and requisite policy decisions for a desirable future are critically dependent upon such knowledge. At the 1991 Woods Hole meeting, a participant, Charles D. Hollister, proposed a site selection method involving suitability criteria, weighted attributes, and a geographic filter overlay system of translucent maps at the largest scale possible. Each individual attribute is geographically mapped and shaded (weighted) according to its relative importance, i.e. no shading (transparent) for most desired attributes, levels of varying transmittance for somewhat desired attributes, and opaque for least desired attributes. All attributes are mapped to the same scale. The resulting area when all the overlays are superimposed and illuminated from the underside would be a scene of varying transmittance. Those portions of the mapped and displayed scene featuring the least attenuation of the underside illumination (i.e. brightest region, highest transmittance) correspond to the most desired disposal sites and would be considered for more thorough data collection and analysis. Conversely, the darker and opaque regions of the mapped scene correspond to less desirable or as exclusion regions. The primitive analog nature of this technique presents numerous difficulties, for example:
accurate registration of each individual overlay map when superimposed upon the set of overlay maps PA1 the limited dynamic range available for shading (weighting) each individual attribute map PA1 the uniformity of shading within a specific area of constant weighted value PA1 varying the shading of each map (i.e. each factor) easily and quickly to permit rapid interactive analysis by the user PA1 producing tens to hundreds of maps with precision fiducial markings PA1 physical handling of the many large scale maps needed to adequately depict the world's abyssal sea floor PA1 limits to the size and resolution of individual cells constituting the region under consideration
The aforementioned difficulties are resolved with the present invention.